Snake: Then and Now

You don’t realize just how much more powerful graphic technically has become, until you see a side by side comparison. Yesterday, Hideo Kojima posted an image on Twitter that did just that by putting Solid Snake’s character model from the original Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation next to Naked Snake’s character model in Metal Gear Solid V. The difference is amazing.

Excuse me if I’m mistaken, and I very well may be having only played the original Metal Gear to completion, and some of Snake Eater, but I believe the man who was Solid Snake in the first Metal Gear Solid became the modern Big Boss.

That’s not entirely accurate, but it’s an understandable mistake. Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid 3, was a prequel set in the 1960s, and the protagonist, Naked Snake, was given the codename “Big Boss” at the completion of that mission because he had defeated his former mentor, a supposed traitor who had the codename “The Boss”, to indicate that his skills were greater than hers.

Speaking chronologically, Big Boss would go on to become the villain of the original Metal Gear on the NES, where he was hunted by his own protege, Solid Snake, who would go on to appear in Metal Gear Solid 1, 2, and 4 (where he was called Old Snake). Metal Gear Solid 5 is going to be another prequel featuring the man who will be Big Boss, during a period of time in between Snake Eater and Metal Gear, when he refused to go by the codename ‘Big Boss’ over his feelings of guilt from the Boss’s death, and insisted on still being called Naked Snake.